The Battle of the Bottle Snatchers

Plastic bottles, cans and milk cartons fly about as enthusiastic young engineers from Europe, USA and Japan are challenged to design and build robotic rubbish collectors from a box of bits and pieces. This hilarious international competition has a serious purpose. The young designers face the same problems, frustrations and failures as they will do in the real engineering world - it is a battle with time, materials, language and unrelenting competitors. The machines are remarkably varied. Ingenious problem-solving leads to cunning contraptions of wheels, belts and spinning limbs, in the shapes of cows, sharks and fierce toasters. The programme demonstrates the possibility of international co-operation between engineers and gives an insight into how design engineers think.